What we’re reading (11/25)
“Black Friday Shoppers Spent A Record $9.8 Billion In U.S. Online Sales, Up 7.5% From Last Year” (CNBC). “Black Friday e-commerce spending popped 7.5% from a year earlier, reaching a record $9.8 billion in the U.S., according to an Adobe Analytics report, a further indication that price-conscious consumers want to spend on the best deals and are hunting for those deals online.”
“Home Prices Are Tumbling In These 25 Cities, Giving Hope To Buyers While Costing Owners Who Bought At The Peak Up To $223 Per Day” (Business Insider). “Property values are starting to slide across the nation — for better or worse. Houses are cheaper than they were last year in 25 of the 100 biggest US real estate markets, according to a November 20 report from real estate research site Point2.”
“Struggling Cities Face More Pain From AI Boom” (Tyler Cowen in Bloomberg). “Artificial intelligence is likely to transform our world in many ways, but one that hasn’t received much attention is the technology’s looming impact on real estate. As AI becomes an essential component of both business and daily life, the value of places where those who work on AI want to live will rise, provided these locales have reasonable infrastructure. At the same time, the value of lower-tier cities left out of the AI boom will diminish.”
“Tesla Vs. Toyota Is The New Hot Battle In Cars” (Wall Street Journal). “When Toyota began spreading its hybrid technology to vehicles beyond the Prius, it came at a hefty premium. In 2005, for example, Toyota’s Highlander hybrid cost almost $10,000 more than the base version of the sport-utility vehicle and was engineered to maximize efficiency at the expense of performance. Or, put another way, customers paid more for some noticeable compromises. Today, that’s changed. Toyota hasn’t said what the new Camry will cost, but the current hybrid version starts at a little less than $2,500 more than the base version of the sedan. And Toyota is touting the new hybrid will have more horsepower than the current base version.”
“Pro Dollarization” (John Cochrane). “With President Milei's election in Argentina, dollarization is suddenly on the table. I'm for it. Here's why…Start with "why not?'' Dollarization, not a national currency, is actually a sensible default. The dollar is the US standard of value. We measure length in feet, weight in pounds, and the value of goods in dollars. Why should different countries use different measures of value? Wouldn't it make sense to use a common standard of value? Once upon a time every country, and often every city, had its own weights and measures. That made trade difficult, so we eventually converged on international weights and measures. (Feet and pounds are actually a US anachronism since everyone else uses meters and kilograms. Clearly if we had to start over we'd use SI units, as science and engineering already do.) Moreover, nobody thinks it's a good idea to periodically shorten the meter in order to stimulate the economy, say by making the sale of cloth more profitable. As soon as people figure out they need to buy more cloth to make the same jeans, the profit goes away.”
